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call to the others: 'Don't be a coward. Come up,
come up, come up.' Others watch from the street
and thep. decide to follow.
"Most of us are woweri with a lot of children,
and who didn't have time to be active in the
community, But we had t.. f ce the fact that with
children we hive no p ace V ^o. Now is the time
that we go outside and figtit tor what we believe
and find out what makos things move and why we are
in the conditio..? we are. Where money comes from
and where it goes"
Barbara Handschu, a lawyer who worked with
squatter groups, said, "Although early in the
movement the new tenant families offered to pay
rent as we bécane mon; sophisticated the cffer
of money was understood implicitly or explicitly
to mean that all money was for the people to use
to run and manage the building which now belonged
to them.
"For me personally, having had my mind brainwashed in the legal system, this meant a complete
réévaluation of the property values which I had
learned in law school and which I had applied
while I was working for a judge who occasionally
sat in landlord-tenant court."
A woman whose squatter apartment is the best
home she's ever had says: "We.know our own needs.
The city doesn't know. We put our money together,
we fix the building, we clean the building up.
Wë have a little community kitchen that we are
starting for the people who don't have stoves or
refridgerators because the city tore them up.
"We have an office that we work out of and
for people to come to if they want to register
and get an apartment. We also have some doctors
who are medical aides. So that in each building
we will have a medical aide for emergencies.
There are all kinds of people from all ."backgrounds
and there"is only one thing -we have"in common: we
are all poor and we are all working together to
have a place to live.
"Throughout the years it has been 'Let's
Keep the poor people fighting among themselves.
I'm better than you because I am Irish or Puerto
Rican or white, I'm Dominican or black, or you're
from the West Indies.' That always kept us fighting amongst each other so we wouldn't get together
and take a look at what is happening with the
government.
-30-
BLACK PRISONER THOMAS WANSLEY, FALSELY ACCUSED
__" '"""- OF RAPING A WHITE WOMAN,
FREED AFTER 10 YEARS
RICHMOND, Va., (LNS) -- Thomas Wansley, sentenced to death at the age of 17 for the rape of
a white woman who was "not too sure" he was her
attacker, has recently been freed after 10 years
in prison.
The history behind Wansley*s case goes way
back to the early 60's when black people were in
the streets of "'Lynchburg, Virginia, protesting
the segregation of public facilities. During
this highly charged,remOt_on_r period, Annie Lee
Carter, a 59 year old white woman said that a
black man had raped her. The police launched a
massive man-hund which ended with the arrest of
Thomas Wansley.
At the time, Wansley was working in a restaurant, just after dropping out of high school.
He was not involved in the civil rights movement,
but he sensed the explosiveness of the situation
and described it accurately:
"Get a Negro -- any Negro — and kill him.
Burn him for raping white women — our women. So
you see, someone had to cry — someone had to die.
And hence, I became the victim of circumstances."
His first trial was. in 1962. At that time,
Annie Lee Carter testified that she was "not too
sure"Wansley was the manfwho had raped her. Wansley
was convicted however and sentenced to death.
Hundreds of people from the black community"/
protestedtthe trial and created the Wansley Defense Committee, bringing in now defense^lawyers
who succeeded in overturning the conviction.
The second trial was declared a mistrial. anAt
the third trial, in 1967, five years since Wansley's
first conviètion, Annie Lee Carter was able to.
positively .identify him as her attacker.
"Naturally, I've seen his picture in the
papers," she said, "and I've seen him in court
since then."
The newspapers again began to play on racist
hysteria,and"declared Wansley's guilt before the
trial, branding his lawyers "communists" for
agreeing to defend him. About half of the prospective jurors admitted that they were convinced
of Wansley's guilt from the papers.
So it came as no surprise that Wansley was
again convicted. This time he was sentenced to
life imprisonment.
In January, 1973, after Wansley had been in
jail for 10 years, a federal judge reversed the
1967 conviction on the grounds that hysteria had
created by the press had made a fair trial impossible. Wansley's attorneys returned to Lynchburg
to arrange for his release on bail. The night be-
for the hearing, 500 residents attended a rally in
his support.
However, the judge refused bail. He was c
convinced of Wansley's guilt, and claimed that his
release would "endanger the safety of every woman
in Virginia."
At a second hearing an Richmond^ôn January
17 where several black Lynchburg residents packed
the courtroom, a federal judge released Wansley on
$10,000 bail. However, the Commonwelath of Virginia is appealing the reversal of Wansley's conviction to the U.S. Court of Appeals. The state
has said it will go to the U.S. Supreme Court if
necessary to reaffirm Wansley's conviction.
As William Kunstler, one of Wansley's lawyers, pointed out:- "Wansley is representative of
thousands who have cried out in the silence of the
jail cell, who have been killed, unnumbered and
unknown. And the only difference is that we know
(CONTINUED ON THE INSIDE FRONT COVER......... )
Page 10
LIBERATION New§ Service
'("#508 )
March 14, 1973
more

Copyright belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.

Owner

GI Press Project/Private Collection; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections: Gift of John Mage; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections; Brünn, Harris Watts Collection - Serials and Press Release Soldiers Movements, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam

Copyright belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.

Owner

GI Press Project/Private Collection; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections: Gift of John Mage; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections; Brünn, Harris Watts Collection - Serials and Press Release Soldiers Movements, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam

Full text

»
call to the others: 'Don't be a coward. Come up,
come up, come up.' Others watch from the street
and thep. decide to follow.
"Most of us are woweri with a lot of children,
and who didn't have time to be active in the
community, But we had t.. f ce the fact that with
children we hive no p ace V ^o. Now is the time
that we go outside and figtit tor what we believe
and find out what makos things move and why we are
in the conditio..? we are. Where money comes from
and where it goes"
Barbara Handschu, a lawyer who worked with
squatter groups, said, "Although early in the
movement the new tenant families offered to pay
rent as we bécane mon; sophisticated the cffer
of money was understood implicitly or explicitly
to mean that all money was for the people to use
to run and manage the building which now belonged
to them.
"For me personally, having had my mind brainwashed in the legal system, this meant a complete
réévaluation of the property values which I had
learned in law school and which I had applied
while I was working for a judge who occasionally
sat in landlord-tenant court."
A woman whose squatter apartment is the best
home she's ever had says: "We.know our own needs.
The city doesn't know. We put our money together,
we fix the building, we clean the building up.
Wë have a little community kitchen that we are
starting for the people who don't have stoves or
refridgerators because the city tore them up.
"We have an office that we work out of and
for people to come to if they want to register
and get an apartment. We also have some doctors
who are medical aides. So that in each building
we will have a medical aide for emergencies.
There are all kinds of people from all ."backgrounds
and there"is only one thing -we have"in common: we
are all poor and we are all working together to
have a place to live.
"Throughout the years it has been 'Let's
Keep the poor people fighting among themselves.
I'm better than you because I am Irish or Puerto
Rican or white, I'm Dominican or black, or you're
from the West Indies.' That always kept us fighting amongst each other so we wouldn't get together
and take a look at what is happening with the
government.
-30-
BLACK PRISONER THOMAS WANSLEY, FALSELY ACCUSED
__" '"""- OF RAPING A WHITE WOMAN,
FREED AFTER 10 YEARS
RICHMOND, Va., (LNS) -- Thomas Wansley, sentenced to death at the age of 17 for the rape of
a white woman who was "not too sure" he was her
attacker, has recently been freed after 10 years
in prison.
The history behind Wansley*s case goes way
back to the early 60's when black people were in
the streets of "'Lynchburg, Virginia, protesting
the segregation of public facilities. During
this highly charged,remOt_on_r period, Annie Lee
Carter, a 59 year old white woman said that a
black man had raped her. The police launched a
massive man-hund which ended with the arrest of
Thomas Wansley.
At the time, Wansley was working in a restaurant, just after dropping out of high school.
He was not involved in the civil rights movement,
but he sensed the explosiveness of the situation
and described it accurately:
"Get a Negro -- any Negro — and kill him.
Burn him for raping white women — our women. So
you see, someone had to cry — someone had to die.
And hence, I became the victim of circumstances."
His first trial was. in 1962. At that time,
Annie Lee Carter testified that she was "not too
sure"Wansley was the manfwho had raped her. Wansley
was convicted however and sentenced to death.
Hundreds of people from the black community"/
protestedtthe trial and created the Wansley Defense Committee, bringing in now defense^lawyers
who succeeded in overturning the conviction.
The second trial was declared a mistrial. anAt
the third trial, in 1967, five years since Wansley's
first conviètion, Annie Lee Carter was able to.
positively .identify him as her attacker.
"Naturally, I've seen his picture in the
papers" she said, "and I've seen him in court
since then."
The newspapers again began to play on racist
hysteria,and"declared Wansley's guilt before the
trial, branding his lawyers "communists" for
agreeing to defend him. About half of the prospective jurors admitted that they were convinced
of Wansley's guilt from the papers.
So it came as no surprise that Wansley was
again convicted. This time he was sentenced to
life imprisonment.
In January, 1973, after Wansley had been in
jail for 10 years, a federal judge reversed the
1967 conviction on the grounds that hysteria had
created by the press had made a fair trial impossible. Wansley's attorneys returned to Lynchburg
to arrange for his release on bail. The night be-
for the hearing, 500 residents attended a rally in
his support.
However, the judge refused bail. He was c
convinced of Wansley's guilt, and claimed that his
release would "endanger the safety of every woman
in Virginia."
At a second hearing an Richmond^ôn January
17 where several black Lynchburg residents packed
the courtroom, a federal judge released Wansley on
$10,000 bail. However, the Commonwelath of Virginia is appealing the reversal of Wansley's conviction to the U.S. Court of Appeals. The state
has said it will go to the U.S. Supreme Court if
necessary to reaffirm Wansley's conviction.
As William Kunstler, one of Wansley's lawyers, pointed out:- "Wansley is representative of
thousands who have cried out in the silence of the
jail cell, who have been killed, unnumbered and
unknown. And the only difference is that we know
(CONTINUED ON THE INSIDE FRONT COVER......... )
Page 10
LIBERATION New§ Service
'("#508 )
March 14, 1973
more